LONDON, December 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The British government's attempt to present Iraq as a uniquely evil regime turned into a public relations flop Monday, December 2, when the Iraqi dissident chosen to present the new dossier confirmed Iraqi officials used British-made equipment as instruments of torture, reported a leading British newspaper on Tuesday, December 3.

Hussain al-Shahristani, a former nuclear scientist who was allegedly tortured and jailed for 11 years for refusing to work on Iraq's secret nuclear program, said: "When I was in jail I was held with British-made handcuffs.

"In the cells next door, I could hear the screams of people who were having holes drilled into their bones. Those drills were made in Britain."

At a briefing for journalists, al-Shahristani nodded approvingly when Foreign Office officials were confronted with a barrage of questions about Britain's silence at the time of the Iraqi gas attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988, its support for Iraq in the 1980s and accusations that the British government was trying to build a case for war, Telegraph.

"I am extremely concerned about the consequences of this intervention on the Iraqi people.

"I am particularly concerned that weapons of mass destruction could be used again by the Iraqi regime against the people if there should be any opposition or uprising."

"The Iraqi people could pay the price of this war, as they have paid the price of sanctions and all the previous wars."

The new dossier publication sparked accusations of political opportunism from human rights groups, while left-wing Labor MPs stressed the Blair government was "softening up" the public for war, reported the Independent.

Amnesty International accused the British government of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses elsewhere in the world and seizing on the horrors in Iraq for political reasons, said the Telegraph.

The Independent quoted an Amnesty spokesman as saying : "We are concerned about the timing and whether that introduces a measure of political opportunism."

Hania Mufti, of the international pressure group Human Rights Watch, said: "The timing would not be so much of an issue if it came against a background of previous actions by the (British) Government to expose human rights violations."

"This selective attention to human rights is nothing but a cold and calculated manipulation of the work of human rights activists," the Independent quoted Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary general, as saying.

"Let us not forget that these same governments turned a blind eye to Amnesty's reports of widespread human rights violations in Iraq before the Gulf war."

Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesman, was also quoted by the Independent as warning: "This dossier, no matter how horrific its terms, would not provide cover for action against Iraq unless it were accompanied by a mandate from the UN."

Alice Mahon, the Labor MP, said: "Why is this being published now? We know all of this is part of a softening-up exercise."

Tam Dalyell, the Labor MP for Linlithgow, said: "I think that this highly unusual, indeed, unprecedented publication is cranking up for war."